Chase involving DUI suspect ends in fatal crash

What started as a police chase in Jupiter ended in a fatal crash 10 miles away in West Palm Beach.

Authorities with the Jupiter Police Department said officers tried to pull over Jacob Donovan, 26, early Tuesday morning for a drunken driving investigation on U.S. Highway 1 near Indiantown Road, but Donovan allegedly refused to stop and fled.

Police briefly pursued Donovan’s Toyota Camry but broke off the chase when he entered Juno Beach.

Investigators said Donovan continued down U.S. 1 at a high rate of speed until he hit another car at 50th Street and killed Rudolph Dansby, 55.

Dansby’s car hit the side of a building, while Donovan’s car traveled one more block before coming to a stop and catching fire in a grocery store parking lot.

“He was dazed, sitting there in his car fidgeting with something, and the fire was getting progressively bigger,” witness Casey McKinna said. “Soon, the whole front of the car was on fire, and I was like, 'You've got to get out, and I started aggressively pulling him out of his car.”

Donovan was seriously injured in the crash and was taken to a hospital.

Police said charges are pending.

A vigil for Dansby will be held Tuesday at 8 p.m. at the scene of the crash.

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